


Golden Dust and Grey Shadows

by foreverinfiction



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 21:46:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8639437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverinfiction/pseuds/foreverinfiction
Summary: Tessa, Will, and Jem find themselves caught in the middle of a new war.
I will have a more detailed summary as I upload further chapters





	

Tessa’s calm scared him. He expected her to scream, to cry, to hit someone, to crumble. Instead, she was overly calm; he could see a few cracks beneath the armor she had built, but to anyone else, she could have been in a cafe sipping a cappuccino, not standing in front of a bloody and pale Will.

Jem wasn’t sure if his face matched what he thought Tessa would do or if he had become creepy calm as well.

The blur of battle slowed in his mind: everything was muted and clear. He saw Tessa drop to her knees and press her hand to Will’s wound. The corpse of the demon that Will had killed just moments before he fell laid next to them, and its ichor was seeping into the pool of Will’s blood. Jem took a step toward the pair as his heart started to shatter, but a scream ripped through the muted chaos. He turned and saw Emma fall to the floor, a demon on top of her, its pincers dangerously close to her throat. He and Tessa exchanged a quick look, and he ran to help Emma.

 

* * *

 

Tessa felt herself breaking, but she forced the pain down. She ran through it like Catarina would, like a doctor who was efficiently dissociated from her patient: male patient, late teens, stab wound to the abdomen, bleeding, maybe infected, probably infected. She wouldn’t let herself think of him as Will. She needed to fix him, and she couldn’t do that if she broke.

She grabbed the stele from Will’s belt and quickly drew and _iratze_ next to his Parabatai rune. It was sloppy and her hands were shaking and she was panicking. A hand wrapped around hers, and she looked at Will in surprise. He gave her a weak smile, “It’s okay, Tess. We’ll be-” he coughed, and the blood stained his lips red.

She touched his cheek, and he turned into it. “You’re not okay, William. I’m not okay, but we’ll get there. I’m going to stop the bleeding and Catarina will come and we’ll be okay. I promise, but you have to stay with me, okay?”

The corners of his mouth turned up in agreement before he grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut. She pressed a fast kiss to his mouth, and then moved to cut back his shirt. He had borrowed a tee shirt from Jem that morning. Jem had worn this shirt the first time he and Tessa went on a plane together, but she couldn’t focus on that memory now.

Tessa forced herself to take a deep breath. The demon had stabbed Will just below the bottom of his ribs, and blood poured out in steady pulses. She steadied her hands and drew two runes: one to slow the blood loss and another _iratze_. She tore the ruined shirt into strips and began to place them on the gash.

She had laid down three when she felt herself be jerked away and onto her back. Her head slammed onto the floor and a man in a suit stood above her. He waved his hand carelessly, and she slid away from Will. Trying to stand, she bent her elbow behind her and her arm protested. The man walked towards her slowly, leisurely, and placed himself between her and Will. An overwhelming rage filled her veins. How dare this man stop her from helping Will? How dare he throw her around?

Tessa brought herself to her feet and reached for her sword, but her hand grasped air, and she saw the sword laying by Will’s side. His pool of had extended to stain the tip of her blade and she cursed herself for being so focused on Will to negate her own safety. The man stared at her with cold grey eyes.

He stood right in front of her and Tessa fought the urge to flinch away. He turned his head and smiled at her. “Well, my dear girl, I wish we could have met under,” he paused and gestured to the room, “cleaner circumstances. A blood stained room is never a good start to a relationship.”

He stepped forward and she moved back. Her back hit a wall, and she winced. “Get away from me,” she said, and her voice came out steady and strong.

“Calm down, my girl. I don’t plan on hurting you now. That would ruin the fun.” His grin widened, and Tessa couldn’t help but liken it to a crocodile, no matter how cliche it was. “I promise I’ll make it much prettier than having your sweet blood splatter this very nice wallpaper. I have better taste than that. I simply wanted to introduce myself to you tonight.”  

She gave a short laugh, “Oh, in that case, I guess it’s okay that you’re slaughtering my friends. I’m Tessa. It’s nice to meet you. Please get the hell out of my house.”

He matched her laugh and reached for her hand, pulling it up to his lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles as if he hadn’t heard anything else she had said, “My pleasure, Tessa. And I do apologize for the mess, but I always insist on making a dramatic entrance.” He took a step closer to her, and his body pushed her back further into the wall with only a few inches between their chests. It was a position that she had been in with Jem many times before and that connection made her blood run cold. Her eyes darted around the room and settled on Jem, but he and Emma had a five demons pressing them into a corner. Jem’s eyes flashed to meet hers, and she shook her head. _Don’t_ , she wanted to say. _Don’t get yourself hurt trying to save me. I’m fine._

The demon turned his head to follow her gaze and lifted his hand to wave a Jem. Jem glared at him, but then a demon lunged at Emma, and he had to look away. “He’s awfully pretty, isn’t he? All dark hair and warm eyes. I must admit I prefer grey eyes over brown, but his are enticing nevertheless.Tell me, is that William or James? Are they both that pretty?”

She didn’t answer any of his questions, instead she ground out, “What do you want?”  

He retreated slightly, “Oh, my dear, don’t get any ideas in your head. As I said before, I just wanted to introduce myself tonight. I won’t hurt you; I’ll even call off the demons.” He smiled again. “Have a good night, my sweet, sweet girl. I trust I will see you again soon.”

And before she could respond, he, and all of his demons, vanished. Tessa let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, taking a few deep breaths. Something didn’t feel right, and she worried over it. A strong hand smoothed up and down her back, and it took a few moments before she heard Jem saying her name.

“Tessa? Are you okay? Tess, please say something.”

She shook her head, and he pulled her up and into her arms. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear. He pressed a kiss to her hair. “We’re safe now. Will’s safe.”

At Will’s name, she pulled away and turned toward Will, suddenly panicked. He had lost so much blood, but Emma knelt next to him, and the blood had stopped. Alec stood a few feet away, talking into his phone, ichor smeared on his boots. “No, no one else is hurt, but he’s not looking great.”

There was a pause before he responded, “Yes, he’s stable. We’re not moving him.”

Another pause and Alec handed the phone over to Jem. “Hi, Catarina.” Tessa heard the echo of Catarina’s voice, but she couldn’t make out the words. She pressed her cheek to Jem’s chest instead and mouthed, “are you okay?” to Alec. Alec nodded and gave her a smile. She smiled back at him.

“I don’t know what happened yet. Tessa’s fine, just shaken up.” She looked up at Jem, and he kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms tighter around her. “Yeah, see you soon.”

Jem hung up and handed the phone back to Alec. “Catarina’s on her way. She wants us to call Jace and Clary to come in case the demons come back.”

Alec nodded, “I’ll call them. You two should get yourselves ready if there’s another attack.”

“We’re fine,” Tessa said.

Alec didn’t hear her; the phone was already pressed to his ear. Jem turned to her, “He’s talking about this cut on your arm.”

She glanced down at the gash running from her shoulder halfway to her elbow. “It’s not that bad, Jem.”

He kissed her and led her over to the couch. She sat down and he kneeled in front of her. Emma brought over bandages from a first aid kit, and he wrapped the gauze around her arm with careful precision.

Jace and Clary came a few minutes after Jem finished bandaging her, and Catarina followed shortly behind. She healed Will quickly with just a few stitches and spells, and then she was coaxing Tessa into a blanket and a pillow and Tessa fell asleep in Jem’s arms.

The grey eyes of the demon that had pressed her to the wall haunted her dreams.

  


**Author's Note:**

> I might rewrite the end of this chapter because I think it was a little rushed, but I hope you enjoyed it so far. This work is completely disconnected from my other two.


End file.
